When I seemed to be sick with a cold just about 11 months out of every year, I got lucky to find a wonderful older generation Jamaican roommate who enjoyed teaching me how to cook and what to eat! That whole year following, I only had 2 colds which seemed to last no more than a few days, and strangely with no coughing or sneezing at all. Although I was piqued, I wasn't surprised, after all, how often does one ever see a sick Jamaican? Answer IMO, almost never. The principle behind, as my roommate Mark touched on --unlike our ancestors, Western culture doesn't utilize the bones of the animal any more, but pick and choose the lower nutrition muscle meats. Not so Jamaican culture wherein Bone extracted compounds (simply put, "bone broth"/ "soup from scratch") are the base of all soups, stews and dishes. So what is the significance of bones? I thought back to a test I wrote in Human Anatomy 401 when we were required to list the 6 functions of bones...one of which was "The Body's Mineral Storehouses." What then was the significance of minerals? "Trace Minerals," always sold in a light-protected blue dropper bottle at Health Food Stores, which my first boss influenced me into buying, I later discovered were are one of the key components, the building blocks of our immune system which "we westerner"s simply don't get anymore because ....the ONLY PLACE THEY'RE FOUND IS CARTILAGE AND BONE. Although the idea of chickens' feet still sort of repulsed I could not deny that both my rats' and my own health changed significantly from that day on. After a few months passed of preparing bone-broth infused feed, if any rat did get the dreaded "myco flare," the sniffles seemed to resolve on their with 2 days-2 weeks, without any antibiotics. Curious if there was any scientific proof, I accumulated a list of over 50 accredited studies which proved that not just the chicken soup alone decreased neutrophil (cold-symptom) activity, but ALSO bioactive compounds produced by the boiling of the vegetables itself. Below is a protoype of my 5-year-tested recipe. And yes that's a REAL picture of the broth I make every week for mine and my rats' use.
Before lab studies ever appeared, the folk knowledge of bone broth (known in the old south as "Pot Liquor") was made famous in biographies and children's Tales such as 'Brer Rabbit and the Pot Liquor". Because southern Afro American slaves were poor, after cooking for their Masters they reserved and consumed the cooking water for their own consumption. The net result? Slaves lived well into their 80's, long enough to inherit their Masters' plantations, while ... their Masters typically died from malnutrition before the age of 50. Who would have thought?
Does store- bought soup suffice? According to a study I found in early 2000's, other than a single variety of Lipton packaged soup (at the time still under the European label "Knorr") ... 99% of commercial soups tested contained NO trace minerals, and did NOTHING to fight colds. To leach the minerals out of bones, it's necessary to boil at high heat for a long time. As mineral is lost from the bones, they become soft and disintegrate. As humans continue to select meaty cuts over bones and organ meats, our immune systems aren't getting what our natural history intended --to consume the WHOLE animal, not just the muscle meat.
Another ingredient of my personal choice is the habanero pepper, also a staple of Jamaican cooking. Apart from its active ingredient "Capsaisin" being the active ingredient in many OTC pain/inflammation creams (many of which I use at work to "rub down" horses' legs), Capsaicin also works orally as a decongestant and EXPECTORANT, liquefying bacteria- harbouring phlegm so it can be brought up easily and run out of the body. In my 15 years of experience I've found that the habanero pepper expels colds as fst as as "the oldest drug in he book", GUAIFENESIN (Robitussin). Although the Habenero makes things a touch spicy, the rats have developed a taste for it, fighting and stealing from the mom's bowls from the age of babies! Now ... freeze a whole crock pot of Habanero-infused soup at a time, add to all rat mashes and blocks, and ...Anyone who knows me l can vouch that I no longer treat my rats with antibiotics (I own expired,virtually-full bottles to prove it), and haven't lost a rat to respiratory illness in 5 years. Not to mention, my oldest rats are well past 3, including a couple of dozen rescues adopted with Mom in 2014 from Animal Services in horrible conditions. Withthis easy, nutritrient-rich "Ratcipee", even the weakest rats in the rescued litters have been able to recover naturally from a bad past life and "winter sniffles" all on their own.
Does store- bought soup suffice? According to a study I found in early 2000's, other than a single variety of Lipton packaged soup (at the time still under the European label "Knorr") ... 99% of commercial soups tested contained NO trace minerals, and did NOTHING to fight colds. To leach the minerals out of bones, it's necessary to boil at high heat for a long time. As mineral is lost from the bones, they become soft and disintegrate. As humans continue to select meaty cuts over bones and organ meats, our immune systems aren't getting what our natural history intended --to consume the WHOLE animal, not just the muscle meat.
Another ingredient of my personal choice is the habanero pepper, also a staple of Jamaican cooking. Apart from its active ingredient "Capsaisin" being the active ingredient in many OTC pain/inflammation creams (many of which I use at work to "rub down" horses' legs), Capsaicin also works orally as a decongestant and EXPECTORANT, liquefying bacteria- harbouring phlegm so it can be brought up easily and run out of the body. In my 15 years of experience I've found that the habanero pepper expels colds as fst as as "the oldest drug in he book", GUAIFENESIN (Robitussin). Although the Habenero makes things a touch spicy, the rats have developed a taste for it, fighting and stealing from the mom's bowls from the age of babies! Now ... freeze a whole crock pot of Habanero-infused soup at a time, add to all rat mashes and blocks, and ...Anyone who knows me l can vouch that I no longer treat my rats with antibiotics (I own expired,virtually-full bottles to prove it), and haven't lost a rat to respiratory illness in 5 years. Not to mention, my oldest rats are well past 3, including a couple of dozen rescues adopted with Mom in 2014 from Animal Services in horrible conditions. Withthis easy, nutritrient-rich "Ratcipee", even the weakest rats in the rescued litters have been able to recover naturally from a bad past life and "winter sniffles" all on their own.
MORE GOOD NEWS!
Collagen, Gelatin and Glucosamine: As minerals are leached into your broth-from-scratch, so is the Gelatin, Collagen and Glucosamine. After all, where did you expect the G-C-L sold in health food stores comes from? The more cartilage present in your base (esp. chicken feet), the more gelatin, collagen and glucosamine your broth will contain. The old cooking adage is, "You know how good your broth is by how much it gels." All this means is a broth high in gelatin will solidify (ie. "gel") when cooled, and is the "Holy Grail" of every aspiring soup chef. Signs that your broth is high in collagen is it will turn really golden, and look like it is shimmering as it reflects the light. E-mail me for pictures and videos of this cool effect.
Collagen, Gelatin and Glucosamine: As minerals are leached into your broth-from-scratch, so is the Gelatin, Collagen and Glucosamine. After all, where did you expect the G-C-L sold in health food stores comes from? The more cartilage present in your base (esp. chicken feet), the more gelatin, collagen and glucosamine your broth will contain. The old cooking adage is, "You know how good your broth is by how much it gels." All this means is a broth high in gelatin will solidify (ie. "gel") when cooled, and is the "Holy Grail" of every aspiring soup chef. Signs that your broth is high in collagen is it will turn really golden, and look like it is shimmering as it reflects the light. E-mail me for pictures and videos of this cool effect.
OTHER DIETARY ADVICE
If you ever boil vegetables on the stove, please refrigerate the cooking water (aka "pot liquor") for your rats' recipes! In practice, I make my slow cooker mash by adding 6-7 cups of water + 2 cups broth to my rats' sunflower/pea/flax mix from my local organic farmer Windy Fields Farms as recommended by my personal veterinarian! Any liquid portion of this can be substituted with re-used cooking water
DO YOU EVEN KNOW WHERE YOUR IMMUNE SYSTEM IS?
80% of our immune system is located the GUT. Yes, for rats too!
Don't feed your rats bread, sweets, pasta or processed foods more than once a week! It will disrupt and result in rotting of the immune-flora in the gut, leaving them prone to abscesses, cancer and respiratory flare-ups. If the "Father of Medicine," HIPPOCRATES" (460 BC) taught "All disease begins in the gut," ... WHY THEN is Western Medicine beginning to accept this for the first time 2000 years later? Because at only 200 years old, Allopathic/Western Medicine (ie. pharmaceuticals) is the youngest medical system in the world and much to learn. Also with a 2000 year history is Chinese medicine, and a 3000 year history for Ayurvedic Medicine. Why certain cultures and recipients of other systems of medicine are healthier than us is not co-incidence! Broadening your horizons and learning is open to everyone!